Bango Stretches to Australia with Google Play Deal (Dec. 11, 2012)
Dec. 11, 2012
Mobile payments specialist Bango Inc. is expanding its reach again, this time to Australia where local mobile network operator Telstra has added the capability for its subscribers to make one-click purchases of digital goods through Google Play. U.K.-based Bango, which began providing payment services to Facebook earlier this year, recently integrated a connection to Google Play so consumers may charge purchases of digital content on its platform, such as books, film and music, to their mobile phone bills. The streamlined process bypasses the need for consumers to input payment card or other personal details, Bango said. Telstra, Australia’s largest mobile network operator, is the first to provide Google Play products via Bango.
Australians on average download 36 mobile apps annually and one in five require payment, said Freddie Jansen Van Nieuwenhuizen, Telstra’s director of consumer applications and services. Google Play offers 700,000 digital content items for sale and “many of our customers have told us they would like a simpler way to buy,” Jansen Van Nieuwenhuizen said. Bango expects that as users of Google’s Android platform grow in number, “we will see an increasing flow of developer talent and compelling content channeled through Google Play,” said Bango CEO Ray Anderson. “We’re expecting that operator billing from Bango will boost conversion rates and developer monetization.”
In addition to its deal with Facebook, Bango enables consumers to purchase digital goods through connections to BlackBerry AppWorld and Windows Phone Store, among others. Bango and Facebook initially offered its streamlined mobile Web carrier billing in the U.K. and U.S., and in September extended it to Germany. Last month Facebook extended its mobile carrier billing through Bango to France.
